Wisdom

"I don't go in for ancient wisdom I don't believe just 'cos ideas are tenacious it means they're worthy"

"Diversity is wisdom."

"Capitalism—trade and industry controlled by people instead of a state—is a fine notion. Sadly, it has devolved into a culture in which tradesmen and industrialists lie, cheat, and sacrifice themselves and others for money to buy stuff that doesn’t work, doesn’t last, and doesn’t matter. And after they’re dead, their lives haven’t mattered. Even if they built a city, others will tear it down one day to build a park. Successful capitalists invest themselves in the lives of others."

"To get from the tangible to the intangible (which mature artists in any medium claim as part of their task) a paradox of some kind has frequently been helpful. For the photographer to free himself of the tyranny of the visual facts upon which he is utterly dependent, a paradox is the only possible tool. And the talisman paradox for unique photography is to work "the mirror with a memory" as if it were a mirage, and the camera is a metamorphosing machine, and the photograph as if it were a metaphor…. Once freed of the tyranny of surfaces and textures, substance and form [the photographer] can use the same to pursue poetic truth" (Minor White, Newhall, 281)."

"LOVE the hideous in order to find the sublime core of it."

"It was heartbreaking to realize how we can fail the people we most love without even trying."

"She had wanted me to hold rape inside me like a dark pearl, keep it in there, as it grew, as I grew cramped, as it overtook me as hidden things do. Secrets become lies. I'd carried in every step I took this lie, the shame of it."

"Children believe they are immortal, death is an empty word like the name of a country they’ve never been to on a time-faded map. I wasn’t a child anymore."

"Childhood is a wilderness."

"He understood. In lovesickness we had found a common language."

"I needed only to allow myself to know what I already knew."

"I was no longer following a trail. I was learning to follow myself."

"We aren’t afraid of what we can explain."

"The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little. You've done well, and honourably."

"She refused to be one of those girls who fell for a pretty face that just white-washed a total jack-ass underneath. She could ogle, but she would not fall until she knew he deserved her."

"That mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true — not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe. “All is vanity.” ALL. This wilful world hath not got hold of unchristian Solomon’s wisdom yet."

"It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not."

"During times of disaster sorrow brings people together in a spirit of friendship, and influences man to recognize the blessings of becoming his brother's keeper."

"We weep as we witness the dead of a loved one."

"If you happen to be white in a white country; pretty according to the dictates of fashion; rich in a country where money is adored, it’s almost impossible to grow up and to grow up honest inside. It is almost impossible. Most people don’t grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging. But to grow up, to take responsibility for the time you take up, and the space you occupy, to honor every living person for his or her humanity, that is to grow up."